“Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life.”
- Georges Blanc, Ma Cuisine des Saisons!

January 23, 2008

Mansi from "Fun and Food" blog has asked us to make some snacks, drinks for the all the games that are going on here these days. This event is called "Game Night Party" and I am bringing my favorite crunchy and delicious "Southern Hush Puppies". Thanks Mansi, enjoy!:)

About Hush Puppies:These traditional southern Hush puppies, also called "corn dodgers", are made of mixing plain flour and corn meal with added spices with a hint of sweet and they do make the most delicious, crispy, handy snack for any game night. There are several stories about how these little snacks came to be called "Hush Puppies".According to WIKI, here are some interesting stories; 1. The name “Hush puppies” is often attributed to hunters or fisherman who would quickly fry corn meal and feed it to their dogs to “hush the puppies” during cook outs or fish frys.2. The other legend surrounding the Hush Puppy dates back to Civil War days. Southern soldiers would sit beside a campfire, preparing their meals. When Union soldiers came near, they would toss their barking dogs some of the fried cakes with the command "Hush, puppies".3. During the time of the underground railroads, escaping slaves would feed these to the dogs tracking them while coaxing them with hopeful commands such as "hush, puppies"!

To make them:1. Heat oil to 370F or on medium high heat. Meanwhile, add and mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.2. Add all the liquid to the dry flour, mix first to see the consistency and then add enough water to make a thickish batter like we make for Indian Pakoda batter. Adjust the spices, let it rest for 15 mins. Do not make the batter thin, Hush puppies will become hard.3. When oil is hot enough, with the help of a spoon, drop little balls of that thick batter in to the oil and fry both sides until they are golden. Drain on paper towel.4. Stick a few attractive toothpicks in them and serve with Ketchup or spicy Mayonnaise.

*****************************************************************************************************************************Dhanggit from "Dhanggit's kitchen" and Uma tagged me for this "Five favorites" MeMe. Reading her MeMe makes mine very bland in fact but I will try it anyway!:)This would be my last MeMe. I have revealed myself enough already with all those MeMes I have done so far.There is nothing else to tell, don't you think? :DThanks for the tag Dhanggit!:))

What were you cooking/baking 10 years ago?10yrs ago, I had a 6yr old and a 2 yr old kids!! What else but I was baking cakes shaped like cars, trucks and butterflies, topped with colorful frosting and sprinkles!

What were you cooking/baking one year ago?A year ago, I was experimenting with Creme Brulee after tasting it in the restaurants. Breaking the hard caramelized sugar crust and digging into the most luscious creamy custard inside made me want to try at home! It was a great success but so much heavy cream makes me hesitate to make it often but will try again and post it for you next time.It's a beautiful dessert!

Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:Well...1. A World tour and to taste every cuisine in the World!! Egypt, China, Russia etc. I would love that.2. A HUGE kitchen with marble counter top, walk in pantry and all that!:)3. Every modern kitchen gadgets I can get my hands on!!4. I have more than 200 cookbooks in 2 1/2 bookshelves and spilling over! I do need a walk in library right next to the pantry!:D5. I will never allow anybody else to cook in my kitchen, so I do need several appliance to make it easy for me!:D

Five foods you love to cook/bake:1. Any traditional Indian dish which calls for elaborate preparation.2. My grandmothers' dishes, makes me feel good and eel at home.3. Baking bread. I love the smell of freshly baked bread.4. Making Cardamom flavored Indian sweets, reminds me of India and the festivals.5. Pizza! And the way it makes my kids eyes twinkle and make them smile from ear to ear!:D

Five foods you cannot/will not eat: 1. Octopus, fried or not.2. Any whole Fish with head intact and eyes wide open staring at you.3. Caviar.4. Sushi.5. Worms! Like those contestants who chew them on TV shows to win a million dollar! They can keep the million dollar, thank you very much!:D

Five favorite culinary toys:1. My KitchenAid Mixer/blender (don't know what would I do without it!:D) and all my Calphalon Total pots and pans!:)2. My flat surfaced electric cooking range, so easy to clean, looks great and so efficient too.3. My bread box Machine, specially to make any kind of dough.4. Ice cream machine, which makes the creamiest Ice Cream!5. All those little kitchen gadgets like Ravioli maker, Gnocchi board, Wafle maker, Panini press, sandwich maker etc. Not essential to a kitchen but makes my cooking easier and fun too.

Five dishes on your "last meal" menu:Oh, this is morbid!!:DI want to live for now and not think about my "last meal"!!:DBesides, who cares about last meal when you are about say "Sayonara" to the World!! I want to see my kids before I go! HeHe!

Five happy food memories:1. Cappuccino in Venice, Italy! It gave me a stomach ache after the fact but was happy to be sipping that THERE!:D2. First time I ate Creme Brulee and the sensation of crack and swoosh into that delicious custard!3. Eating Bhelpuri from the street cart as a teenager in Belgaum, India with another teenage boy standing beside me munching on Pav Bhaji! Can you guess who? That would be me and Arvind, same guy I am married to for 21 yrs!!!:D4. Looking at my kids happily gobbling up the food I make and say "thank you mommy"! What more happiness could a mother need?!:)5. Lastly, one happy (and almost silly!) memory is associated with Switzerland for us, not necessarily connected to their traditional cuisine though. I am not saying they don't have great food, they do!But let me tell ya, after eating all those almost unfamiliar food in small Swiss towns where they don't have fast food restaurants like UK or US, we drove to Zürich for sight seeing and we saw a McDonald there for the first time in a week!!! Oh boy!! We were soooo happy!!! We were literally hopping and skipping to that Mickey D's! Hahaha!!!

That's it for the MeMes!! Enjoy the rest of the week!:)

Posted by
Asha

57 comments:

i missed leaving comments in ur blog ashakka. sounds very kiddish but true:) he he he... hush puppies is what i am wearing...he he he...no, not the one u cooked but my knee high boots;) lol... i am on strict diet now. so no deep fried stuff and no high calaorie diet. these days when i go for shopping, i carefully check the calorie and fat content in any food i buy. yeah, i know it sounds very 'excited' but cant help. :)and last meme han? i have decided not to write any meme unless it is food related. i guess i have written enough meme's till date(oh, nothing like u though;) i enjoyed reading ur last meme:) and couldn't help but laugh loudly when i read ur food exp in swiss:) he he he... we did the same thing when we found pure 100% vegetarian snacks being sold at mt.titlis... :)

Sia, good to see you. Yeah, I had to disappear for a while to reappear with new plans!:DArvind always wore Hush Puppies shoes to work when we were there too, really classy stuff!:)Good luck with your diet,good start for a new year. I am too back on my exercise routine and doing very well with my free time, feels good. Dieting is not good for me though, need to eat well on weekends! Haha!I know! It's so hard to find some familiar food in Europe other than England.We were so happy to see MC D's!!!!!

Oh My, the hush puppies look so cute and yummO.. give me any fried food.. I am sure I will gobble up all of them..:D.. Loved ur last Meme.. each and every bit of it.. :)

Ya I know what u are thinking, I must be on my break rite.. but what to do. I am so tempted to visit some imp blogs.. or else I don't feel like my day has gone well.. hehehe.. so addictive na.. I know!..

loved the stories about the hush-puppies..i always wondered about them..i also wonder about puppy-chow too ;)..and the meme was a fun read..glad that ur comments section has been opened...you do not have to respond to me if u are busy asha..i am aware that u will be reading it..that is enough for me :)

Rajitha, Puppy chows are great too but for the little doggies!:DThat's okay, I have time today. Arvind is not coming home for dinner, so got some free time. I will be reading this afternoon!:)Enjoy, thanks.

I have never hzard about hush puppies. Well one is learning every day.Meme is so nice. You made me laugh few times, while i was re&ading it.I too love cream brilee, but till now i've never made them at home.I can imagine the joy when you saw the Macdonalds.

Meme was very nice,With all that kitchen gadgets cooking would be really funny and may be interesting too...Nothing we need more than our kids praising mommeee..its yummee..thats right.. Like you, me too enjoy baking pizza to see the twinkling stars..:D

Ashakka, the comments are back :). Hugs to you, dear! Love the hush puppies recipe and will check out your spanakopita recipe too, i love those! Keep taking time for yourself though, i'd rather see you happy and relaxed and enjoy all your other hobbies :).

yeh yeh yehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! comments are open comments are open..yeh yeh!

Ok was too excited! guess thats apparant! I am tooexcited to type in anything else. And also it can quite get cumbersome for you to keep hearing How Good you are..how tasty ur dishes are, how good ur snaps luk..are and how come u managed to make so many! Its like telling aishwarya rai is good looking! Duh! we know!

So will jus wallow in the feeling of typing nonsense , for you to read and wonder from which planet did I come from! he he he

Musie, you are a darling. I will sweetie, thank you. It feels good to hear you do really care about me. Hugs to you too!:))

Suganya, don't feel bad! You are way smarter than me.Like everything else, I do get obsessed with the books too and it's NOT normal!!:D

D, did I see you on planet Mars today? You know that red human thingie they showed on CNN!! May be it was me last week! Hahaha!!I know, we run out of words to say sometimes. Just type "Hi" next time!!Good enough for me!Glad I am still in your blog roll though!:)

Mona, I don't really experiment much with foreign foods, specially Sea food dishes etc.So, my experience is limited in that dept., that's why it seems bland to me!:DDon't we foodies wish we all had a huge well equipped kitchen? That one I would love to have!! :)

I always assumed that hush puppies had meat of some sort in them. Well now I know better. Looks yummy. That was a nice meme Asha.. it may seem to you like you've said it all but it was an interesting read for me... :)

lol! Sig, I know you would love all those too. I grew up as a vegetarian, so it's pretty hard come around those Sea food taste!Yes, I needed to get away for myself for a while but I am back with new plans now, feels great!:)

Laavanya, these are meat free but always served with meat though, tastes great. MeMes are great, I have told everything I have, so sayonara for those!:D

Ramya, don't you know by now that I am little crazy? Hahaha!!Yeah, nobody meeds that many cookbooks but I can't resist every time I see a pretty one. Another obsession I have to try and get over!:)Thanks Roopa, have a great weekend!:)

Reeta, they are butter chaklis but cheese! They use cookie spritz to make these , can easily use chakli gadget too!:D You get EVERYTHING in there what we have here except paycheck in dollars, may be we should move back to India!!!!!!:)

Hi AshaI feel so nostalgic reading your meme here....I have lived in Belgaum for 3 years and remembered having my cup of coffee in Venice and Mc Donalds in Switzerland....You brought back so many memories..All your meme's have been a great read!! :)

All the snacks and pakodas for the game nite party look so good. Interesting read about the game nite party, never knew about it before :)..The spanakopita looks real nice...Loved reading your Meme too..

OHO!! Did I wake up on the right side today? :DSo good to see you. Hope you are doing well, take your time. I plugged off for sometime too from blogging completely and came back with new plans, feels lot better now!:)Yeah, I want that kitchen!! May be when kids move out and done paying for their college, I could plan to have one!:))

Hush puppies... Don't do this Asha. Why are you going on tempting me like this? It looks absolutely delicious, perfectly fried. I didn't look at the picture for long. I can't bear it anymore.Last meme? Why is that? Your meme's are always so fun to read. No fancy stuff. Just the plain truth told in a fun way. I've always enjoyed it.

Kribha, move away quickly!;DI know how tempting, I am sticking to the exercise too since Jan. Keep it up, you will do well!:)MeMe! Oh, it's becoming the same thing again and again, I think I will stop!:)

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